Mary Oliver: Maybe Hope. Maybe Faith.
A Short Reflection for November
Dear Friends and Family,
After a hiatus last month, we return today to our first-of-month short reflection with a passage from Mary Oliver.
In the winter I am writing about, there was much darkness. Darkness of nature, darkness of event, darkness of the spirit. The sprawling darkness of not knowing.
We speak of the light of reason. I would speak here of the darkness of the world, and the light of _____. But I don’t know what to call it. Maybe hope. Maybe faith. . .
~Mary Oliver, “Winter Hours,” in Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems
What came to me is the light of innocence... I am going to need to contemplate that one. Because this is not about light banishing the dark, but one that allows for the dark. The moon and the stars need the darkness to be seen. I feel the integration of the polarities are needed here. Maybe innocence is that space of wonder and curiosity that rests without judgement.
Thank you, Renée, the light without a name because it's beyond words.